Re: psychic tv ... and bootlegs

[Jim Hofmann <hofmann@AMSAA.ARPA>]

Doug:  I spent all this time writing about bootlegs ( at the end )
that I thought it would benefit the rest of discussion in love-hounds.
Didn't think you'd mind.


Doug Alan wrote:
>They are a psycheldeic punk group.  I told you about them -- "Unclean"
>(get the E.P., not the album with it on it) has these demonic voices
>singing "Jesus walked on the water".  "Mirrors" (part two) is an
>accapella version.  It's intense!  It says in the runoff groove: "This
>album cursed by God", and the center of the record has this strange
>symbol, which is supposedly a symbol of powerful evil.  I figured it
>might be nice before "Waking The Witch".

Ooh, maybe I should get a copy and give it to the former R&R singer
turned Christian who works here.  He constantly giving me literature
on the evils of the New Agers (they are preparing to eat their grandmothers!
Yoicks!!!) and the coming Appokkklypse.

>Pink Negroes and Space Negroes are both masterminded my Eric Lindgren
>(of Birdsongs). He puts together groups for single songs -- Pink negroes
>was one of those.  Space Negroes is an ongoing thing -- they just came
>out with a three minute cover of "In A Gadda Davita" (sp?).

REAGAN YOUTH do that one, too, except they claim they are the incarnation
evil of BLACK SABBATH/IRON BUTTERFLY b-4-hand.  Roger Miller is playing
down at DC SPACE later this month (19 OCT to be exact) - any opinion on
him?

> You gotta tell me how to do good bootlegs -- I have to prepare now for
> the eventuality of a KB concert someday....

First you gotta make sure the rentacops aren't programmed to take bootleg
equipment.  If they are you must concoct some sort of wild scheme to
smuggle it in.  This involves reconnansence of the area prior to the
show.  I have heard of people stashing away equipment the night before
by bribing the night watchman but this can backfire when you find your
equipment gone.  The other option is to find out who the soundperson
is and either act very friendly or find a suitable to seduce him/her
into giving you soundboard copys. This may involve hiring a private
eye or using the Sunshine act to get at his/her secret file to find
their pecadillios/perversions.  One way I've heard is to oohh and ahhh
at his equipment through out the concert and act like you want to
be a sound engineer when you grow up.  This however, can make one
miss the show but have a otherwise fun conversation about decibals
and all.  In the extreme case you can find who the local union doing
the gruntwork is and try and get a job with them while enamoring yourself
to someone in the band/soundcrew/mainperformer.  This involves work
and is not recommended.

There are also some high-quality hand held walkman-type recorders
which usually have bad built-in mikes designed to pick up the
loudest sound in the area.  This can result in a tape which fades in
and out as people in area cough or scream things like - "JEEEERRRYYY
WWWHHHHAAATTTTSS UUUPPP, BRO!!!!".  Bad quality but extremely
easy to smuggle in since renta-cops don't know too much about audio
equipment anyway.

If however, the band doesn't care about bootlegs you are in luck.
The first step here is to find a cohort to help lug in the equipment
assuming you want to go the high end.  You will need:

Cassette tape recorder with monitor jacks and level indicators
A backpack
Two Crutches
Some of those little headphones for monitoring
OPT: A walkman to listen to the tape you just recorded to pick up any
flaws not picked up by the little headphones
4 or 5 Top of the Line Tapes - don't skimp here because of the relative
inexpensiveness of tapes.
Three microphones (one is for back up)
Some strong tape.  Duct tape is OK but can get awfully messy when
tearing down but if you get the kind that is fairly thin in width
it shouldn't be *too* much of a problem.
A battery pack and AC/DC adapter.

Tape the mikes to the bottom of the crutches.  You may have to
do some asking around to get the right microphones.  You want something
to pick up far way sounds good. I have SHURE 11X70 or sum such.  
If you are worried about price, the last time I checked Radio Shack
had fairly good mikes for low cost.

The battery pack you may be able to rent.  It's not really recommended
to buy these things unless you find other needs for them (like camping).
Some of them already have AC/DC adapters built in.  If you are an EE
or know an EE, you might (or he/she might) find it fun to put together
your own.  This is good cause you can adapt it to fit in the bottom of
the backpack.  Naturlly, the tape recorder goes on top.  I've seen rugged
type recorders built especially for something like this as well
as people's own tape player taken out of their system.

Personally, I prefer to forget about the above bullshit and use a battery
driven top of line ghetto blaster instead.  It's less equipment - less
hassles but lower quality (sometimes).  Just don't use those mikes
they have built in cause invariably they suck.  Lots of hissing, too.

So if you want to go middle line all you need is"

Good Tapes
Good Ghetto Blaster
Extra Batteries (Duracell)
Crutches (easy to smuggle in - just act like you have a broken foot)
Good Microphones
Tape
Back pack which fits most of above shit in.

Bottom line:  use a decent walkman/recorder

Way Bottom line:  use a shitty walkman/recorder or ghettoblaster with
built in mikes.  At most thrash shows it don't make a difference anyway.
Who wants to tape when you can dance - though!


Bootleg videos are a whole nother storie.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If you live your life in a dream, you'll wake up someday and realize you 
never had anything real ... You think that over, Beav.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Hofmann, hofmann@amsaa.ARPA